1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an image forming apparatus that functions as a printer, a facsimile machine, a copier, and so forth and prevents image formation failure.
2. Related Art
Known image forming apparatuses generally include a photoconductor and a drive unit. The photoconductor functions as an image carrier to form a toner image on a surface thereof to transfer the toner image onto a recording medium or onto an image transfer body. The drive unit drives the photoconductor functioning as a driven member.
Japanese Patent No. JP-4820908-B (JP-2010-097233-A) discloses an image forming apparatus having a configuration in which a drive unit transmits a driving force from a motor to a photoconductor via a photoconductor gear and a drive gear by meshing a photoconductor gear provided to a rotary shaft of a photoconductor with a drive gear having a rotary shaft is held by a holding member of a body of a drive unit.
However, due to processing accuracy and/or assembly error of parts included in the drive unit, a distance between the rotary shaft of the photoconductor gear and the rotary shaft of the photoconductor drive gear can be shifted from a target distance. In such a case, the photoconductor gear and the photoconductor drive gear do not mesh with each other properly, and therefore vibrate when the drive unit drives the photoconductor gear and the photoconductor drive gear. Consequently, an image transferred from the photoconductor onto the recording medium or the intermediate transfer body has an image failure caused by the vibration such as banding.